The world is confronted with wicked environmental problems that cannot be well understood or acted upon without addressing their ethical dimensions. Research shows that official science curricula on environmental science and ecology topics are shaped by the scientific discourse and environmental discourses of "ecological modernization"…

Marie Ståhl and Anita Hussénius have defined what discourses dominate national tests in chemistry for Grade 9 in Sweden by using feminist, critical didactic perspectives. This response seeks to expand the results in Ståhl and Hussénius's article "Chemistry inside an epistemological community box!--Discursive exclusions and inclusions in the…

Focus of this article is the current situation characterized by students' de-rootedness and possible measures to improve the situation within the frame of education for sustainable development. My main line of argument is that science teachers can practice teaching in such a way that students are brought in deeper contact to the environment. I…

Non-formal education has been suggested as becoming more and more important in the last decades. As the aims of non-formal education are broad and diverse, a large variety of non-formal learning activities is available. One of the emerging fields in many countries, among them Finland and Germany, has been the establishment of non-formal laboratory…

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and UNESCO have proposed that the International Year of Chemistry, 2011, should make a strong educational contribution to the goals of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. This emphasis is absolutely necessary because education for sustainability remains practically…

This article analyses Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in chemistry by reviewing existing challenges and future possibilities on the levels of the teacher and the student. Pedagogical frameworks that are found eligible in practice are reviewed. Lesson themes that are suitable for implementing socioscientific issues (SSI) related to ESD…

What would you do if you were offered over a thousand pounds to spend on a science project in your school? This is the enviable position that Conwy schools have found themselves in as part of a three-year rolling project by the Edina Trust. The Edina Trust has been working together with Conwy Local Authority since 2010 to develop the Gardening…

This paper considers how the school science curriculum can be conceptualised in order to address the contingent and complex nature of environmental and sustainability-related knowledge and understanding. A special concern lies in the development of research perspectives and tools for investigating ways, in which teachers are faced with complex and…

Within this decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), educational institutions need to increase their efforts to educate their students for a sustainable future. Teachers are most influential in educating children and teenagers to be leaders of tomorrow in protecting the environment. Thus, aspiring teachers should demonstrate…

In the United Kingdom (UK) and Europe, the need for education for sustainable development and global citizenship has recently been emphasised. This emphasis has arguably found its major home in the social studies in higher education. Concurrently, there has been a decline in interest in "the sciences" as evidenced by a reduction in the…

One of the principles of sustainable development is to replace chemicals traditionally derived from oil with alternative, renewable materials. For example, phenol and phenol derivatives currently used in the manufacture of wood adhesives can be replaced (at least in part) by biopolymers extracted from biomass. In this work, pine bark (a renewable…

Numerous studies have demonstrated that university students are capable of contributing to sustainable development while improving their academic skills. Unfortunately for many institutions, the expense of sending large cohorts of students on international service learning trips is prohibitive. Yet, students remain enthusiastic and well equipped…

When the United Nations General Assembly authorized holding the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, it was hardly a secret--or even a point in dispute--that progress in implementing sustainable development had been disappointing since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. With poverty deepening and environmental…

In this paper, we report some reflections on science and education, in relation to teaching and research in the field of complex and controversial socio-environmental issues. Starting from an examination of the literature on the epistemological aspects of the science of controversial issues, and introducing the perspective of complexity, the…

This study examined decision making in an urban US high school classroom in which tenth-grade students analyzed scientific evidence about current issues of sustainability, technology and society. A full-year course, called Science and Sustainability, was used in both groups, and a computer program, called "Convince Me", provided scaffolding for…